Rupert Murdoch threatens to sue BBC over stories 'stolen' from his newspapers

Rupert Murdoch has threatened to sue the BBC for allegedly stealing content from his company's newspapers and said his multinational media outlet, News Corporation, is considering pulling its stories from Google news searches.

In an interview with Australia's Sky News, which Murdoch partially owns, the media mogul was asked why he expects Internet users to accept his plan to charge readers to access his newspapers' stories online when they can read the news for free on other Web sites such as the BBC's.

'But we're better,' he said in the interview broadcast over the weekend.

'And anyway, if you look at them, most of their stuff is stolen from the newspapers now, and we'll be suing them for copyright.

'They'll have to spend a lot more money on a lot more reporters to cover the world when they can't steal from newspapers.'

But he said he didn't think the matter would end up in a courtroom.

'They know the law,' he said. 'They will adapt.'

There has been no response from the BBC.

In August, Murdoch said visitors to the Web sites of newspapers owned by News Corp., which include The New York Post and The Times of London, will have to start paying fees to read the news within the next year.